Pearl Wildow
Pearl Wildow, '''sometimes called by her maiden surname '''Pearl Hayard, is the daughter of Diana and Bannon of the Western House of Hayard, and is the Duchess of Mistmoore in the Pale. Her son, Hansa, is the prince to the Seat of Steel in Mistmoore. She has four known siblings. Pearl was raised with her siblings at the seat of House Hayard in the Western Province, Orhurst Castle. Pearl is thirty at the start of Beyond a Waking Eye, and is a minor POV character, with only a few chapters in her perspective. After her son Hansa is kidnapped by the Tribunal Creed and goes missing, Pearl is desperate to get him back. Her desperation often makes her brusque and impatient, believing that any second passing, Hansa could be in one place or another. Appearance and Character Pearl is described as being a beautiful, lithe woman, young-looking for her age, with fair skin and noble cheekbones. In terms of her hair and eye colour, she is a typical lady from the Western Province, with glassy blue eyes and thick flaxen-blonde hair that tumbles to her waist. Her daughter Hazel is said to look strikingly similar to her, so much so that she is considered to look almost identical to Pearl's younger self. Pearl is usually quite impatient and blunt, though she is more than capable of being warm-hearted and devoted, most notably to her family. She is very prejudiced of the baseborns living in Lower-District, believing them being nothing but nameless tax-payers. She is like her daughter Hazel with adoring finery and material pleasures. She is sometimes unaware of how much she influences her daughter Hazel's personality, with her bigotry of Mistmoore's lowfolk affecting her as well as Pearl's solicitous motherly shielding of Hansa, though Hazel's is significantly more profound and mostly for other reasons than Pearl's. After Hansa kills Edwurd Podgarde, Pearl begins to understand just how affected by this her son is and is horrified how he turned from a joyful person to the complete opposite. This only strengthened her belief that Hansa is not as mentally strong as typical northerners and did what she could to keep him safe. She noticed how Hazel was so protective of Hansa that it practically rules all of her decisions. This gives Pearl some concern for Hazel and wonders whether she has been espoused with a genuine source of paranoia, as Hazel becomes so fiercely protective over Hansa that she would kill, burn or demolish anything in her path without a second thought if it kept her from her brother. She once confronted Hazel about this, and while her daughter is normally polite and pledged to instructions with her, Hazel became very restless and tried her hardest to change the subject. Pearl, along with Hazel, is not fond of riding horses. They believe that the sore feeling afterwards is not worth it, and prefer the use of horse-drawn carriages. Pearl tried not to interfere too much with Hazel and Hansa's childhood as she understood that they would have a life of responsibility and politics with little free time after a certain age, especially for Hazel. When Hansa is abducted, Mistmoore is anxious. Pearl is regularly seen praying and dressed in boiled leathers to "protect herself from sin". Pearl beseeches the Soothsayer to keep Hansa safe and bring him home, however she gets frustrated when no signs are given to her that her prayers are being considered. Despite this, she is desperate for her son's safety and prays several times a day. Due to being bred in the Westervale, Pearl was taught religious virtues for the Church of the Soothsayer. She grew to be religious and regularly prays for good health and family safety. Due to living in the north, she realises teaching her children Soothsayism is immoral as it contradicts the Northern Deities, though she would like it for them to follow Soothsayism teachings. This is because she finds the Northern Deities too savage and teaches strength and brutality. However, neither Hansa nor Hazel are religious. Because of this and relieved they will not follow northern principles, she tries to show them how the Church of the Soothsayer encourages peace and is more mature. Hansa is very interested in the principles, however, Hazel tells Pearl she should be careful talking about other religions in the north. History Pearl was born in Orhurst Castle in 306E to Diana and Bannon Hayard and grew up there along with her four siblings. She was named by her mother Diana after her favourite gemstones. She was taught to be heavily religious. However, while she was religious, she was not as religious as her parents would like her to be. Growing up in Orhurst, Pearl was close with her older sister Jenna as she was her only female sibling. Pearl was not close with her brothers apart from her oldest brother Trentan, who was the kindest to her and Pearl held him in high regards. When Trentan is exiled to Yaecuda after being caught by the Crown's Soldiery trying to sell a thirteen-year-old to slavery, Pearl gets upset, unable to believe the her favourite brother was actually an animal. For a long while, Pearl considered her girlhood blissful, free from responsibility and able to fantasise over pretty boys to marry. At the age of thirteen, Pearl's older sister Jenna was betrothed to Lord Rodrich Lanston in hopes to secure an alliance with the Lanstons in the Middlelands so they can be used in a later term in case of a war. Eleven year old Pearl is heartbroken when Jenna moves to Corstal Castle as she loses the only person other than her parents that she can connect with. Due to becoming lonely and being the only child not married to other houses, Pearl became closer to her friends and her parents until she was betrothed to Jystin Wildow. Pearl was not happy about this as the thought of being wed to a northerner disgusted her as she believed them to be unsophisticated cavemen. However, Jystin was killed by Borri after the former tried to murder him Because of this, she is then betrothed to Borri Wildow. Pearl hears of this and is slightly more optimistic over her match with Borri as he was younger than Jystin and seemed like a capable man due to his recent victory. Despite this, Pearl was very apprehensive over the arrangement. Pearl found Borri handsome “in that strict, hardy northern way”, and found him overall promising. Pearl was wed to Borri when she was thirteen and he was sixteen. Pearl describes her initial relationship with Norri as being “cold and forced”, acting close to him during feasts with other guests to uphold her image, but the two struggled to connect due to a conflict of cultures. After seeing just how competent Borri was, Pearl started to connect with him but felt very homesick. They eventually grew their relationship “stone-by-stone” and the two became proper lovers, with Pearl slowly adapting to the northern way of life. While cherishing the thought of bearing children, Pearl was extremely apprehensive of actually birthing one when she became pregnant. She made it her code not to drink wine or put her life in danger until her child was born. Pearl gives birth to a boy and Borri planned to name him Jayme beforehand. However, Jayme was stillborn and died shortly after leaving the womb. Pearl was devastated by this and was continuously comforted by Norri and her family, though seldom speaks of it. Getting pregnant again, Pearl prays to all the gods that this child will “live to see the sun and smell the smoke and finger the grass”. Pearl gives birth to a “little red-cheeked angel”, and because he wasn’t stillborn and Pearl considered it a miracle, she decides to name him Hansa after Hansa the Holy. Pearl did not allow any wetnurses near Hansa because she’d like to spend hours just looking at him as he gently wriggled about in his cot. Pearl gradually became concerned about Hansa after Hazel’s birth as typical babies were loud and would cry, but Hansa would very seldom cry unless he was hungry. Hazel herself was a loud child. Because of this, Pearl did an experiment to see if Hansa would indeed cry on any other occasion other than needing aliment. This experiment consisted of shaking Hansa’s cot slightly to see if he would react to it. Surprisingly to her, Hansa did react but Hazel caterwauled than any times previously witnessed. Pearl felt very guilty afterwards but felt it gave her some closure that there was nothing wrong with her son, and deduced later in Mortal Songs that Hazel was protective of Hansa even since a young age as she cried despite nothing happening to her.